WSOP: Epilogue

Winning With Pocket 4s

Last Sunday, I played in the WSOP Poker Hall of Fame Bounty Tournament, my last tournament of the WSOP. I didn't make Day 2 and I didn't cash, but I still feel good about how it went. I played from noon to 10 PM. I was winning hands at the beginning and became chip leader for a while but then ran card dead for the last 4 hours. Yet one play was written up on the WSOP website.

I got dealt pocket 4s, the best hand I’d seen in a while. I was in the big blind. Everyone folded to the small blind, who had a fairly small stack about the same size as mine. He completed the bet. I checked.

This player, like me, had been playing pretty tight for a while. We both didn’t have enough chips left to play crazy. The flop was 276. He checked. I figured if he’d connected to the flop with a 6 or 7 in his hand, he would have bet. If he’d had an over-pair (a pair higher than any card on the board), he would have raised pre-flop.  He couldn’t afford to keep me in a hand and risk that I connect with a better hand.

The turn was a Q. He checked and I checked. Again, if he’d had a Q in his hand, he should have bet just in case I had a K or A in my hand that might connect on the river.

The river was another Q, which I was pretty sure didn’t help him. He thought we both had crummy hands, which was true, and the only way to ensure that he won it was to bet so that I’d fold. What he didn’t consider was that I had a very small pair. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good gamble on his part, but suddenly the small pair in my hand seemed good, so I called his bet. I was right and won the hand.

It felt great because I read the other player perfectly. It was a very good play that turned out to be the last one I played in the WSOP before busting out. Overall, I broke even this year, which is better than any year yet. Let’s hope next year I make a profit at the WSOP. A big one!

About the author

Bob Zeidman is a high-stakes recreational poker player. He is also the creator of the field of software forensics and the founder of several successful high-tech Silicon Valley firms including Zeidman Consulting and Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering. His latest book is Election Hacks, the true story of how he challenged his own beliefs about voting machine hacking in the 2020 presidential election and made international news and (possibly) $5 million.